Unreported World 7 March 2008. Bangladesh Drowning.
The effects of climate change are with us now and apparently accelerating rapidly.
Firstly congratulations if that is the appropriate term to the reporter whose name I cannot recall but is notable, to the crew and all those who helped get the program to our screens.
The situation there, due to rapidly rising water levels, first struck me as being particularly ‘our problem’ as a Westerner and showed desperate people continually having to move on with no apparent organisation to help them.
We responded to the tsunami which struck Indonesia and something is being done. Although that situation has its shortcomings there seems to be little that is being done in Bangla Desh, either by their government organisations or the UN or other International aid agencies.
What CAN be done about it? Personally I feel at a loss right now other than hoping that the millions involved can be resettled. Raising the profile of this situation and bringing greater attention to it might concentrate minds on the problem which is probably the biggest and most sustained immediate effect of the melting of glaciers, ice shelves and more violent weather systems presently being brought about.
We need constructive ideas and also, particularly in view of rising oil prices, basic cereal price rises putting a damper on ideas for biofuels, some radical ideas regarding changes in the way we, in the West, live.